Free tool
Social Media Character Counter
Paste one caption and watch it land on all 8 networks at once, from the 280 characters X gives you to the 63,206 Facebook will technically accept.
Last updated: 2026-07-31
Every network counts differently and almost none of them show you the whole caption. X stops you at 280. Instagram allows 2,200 but hides everything past roughly the first line. LinkedIn accepts 3,000 and displays about 210 of them before a "...see more" link takes over.
That gap between what is allowed and what is visible is where most captions go wrong. A post that fits comfortably inside the limit can still fail, because the sentence doing the persuading sits below a fold nobody taps.
This counter runs your text against all 8 networks at the same time. It tracks the hard ceilings, the hashtag and mention caps that make Instagram reject a post outright, the 23 character weight X applies to every link, and the point on each network where your caption gets folded away. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is stored.
0 characters0 words0 hashtags0 mentions
Preview on Instagram
Grey text sits below the fold, red text is past the limit.Start typing above and your caption appears here with the fold and any overflow marked.
Caption and character limits by network
The hard ceiling is rarely the number that matters. The fold column is where each network stops showing your caption unless someone taps to expand it.
| Network | Caption limit | Title limit | Hashtags | Mentions | Folds at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,200 | Not published | 30 maxUse 3 to 5 | 20 max | ~125 chars | |
| 63,206 | Not published | No fixed capUse 0 to 2 | No fixed cap | ~477 chars | |
| Threads | 500 | Not published | 1 maxUse 1 topic tag | No fixed cap | Not published |
| 3,000 | Not published | No fixed capUse 3 to 5 | No fixed cap | ~210 chars | |
| X (Twitter) | 28025,000 with Premium | Not published | No fixed capUse 1 to 2 | No fixed cap | ~280 chars |
| TikTok | 4,000 | 90 | No fixed capUse 3 to 5 | No fixed cap | ~100 chars |
| YouTube | 5,000 | 100 | 15 maxUse 3 (only the first 3 show above the title) | No fixed cap | ~157 chars |
| 500 | 100 | 20 maxUse 0 to 5 | No fixed cap | ~50 chars |
Limits verified 2026-07-31. Networks change these without much warning, so treat the fold numbers as close rather than exact.
Writing for eight limits at once
- Write for the tightest network in your set first, then expand. Cutting 3,000 characters down to 280 usually destroys the hook; growing 280 into 3,000 rarely does.
- Check the fold, not just the limit. Every network except a standard X post hides most of your caption behind a "more" control, and the words above that line decide whether anyone expands it.
- Hashtags and mentions spend the same budget as words on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. A block of 30 tags is not free, and it is not extra reach either.
- Emoji and flags look like one character but are several code points underneath. This counter measures what you see on screen, which is what the apps display back to you.
- Keep one canonical caption and adapt it per network rather than pasting the same block everywhere. The same idea at 280 and at 3,000 characters is genuinely two different posts.
Frequently asked questions
Which platform has the longest caption limit?
Facebook, by a wide margin: a post can run to 63,206 characters. YouTube descriptions come next at 5,000, then TikTok at 4,000 and LinkedIn at 3,000. None of those numbers are a target, they are just the point where the field stops accepting input.
Which platform has the shortest caption limit?
X, at 280 characters for a standard account. Threads and Pinterest descriptions are next at 500 each. X Premium accounts can go to 25,000, but the timeline still only shows the first 280 before a "Show more" toggle.
Do hashtags and mentions count toward the character limit?
Yes, on every network here. A hashtag is just text with a # in front of it. Instagram additionally caps you at 30 hashtags and 20 mentions per caption, and YouTube ignores every hashtag on a video once you pass 15.
Why does a link cost 23 characters on X?
X rewrites every URL through its own t.co wrapper, and the wrapper is a fixed length. That means a 15 character link and a 180 character tracking link both cost 23, so there is no point shortening URLs for X specifically. No other network here does this.
Do emoji count as one character?
Visually yes, technically it depends. A plain emoji is usually one or two code points, a flag or a skin tone variant can be four or more. This tool counts grapheme clusters, which is what a reader perceives as one character and the closest match to what the composers show.
Is this character counter free?
Yes, and there is no account, no email step and no upload. The counting happens in your browser, so your caption never leaves the page you are reading.
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